


it might all be gone tomorrow

by icanhearyouglaring



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Comic book logic, F/M, Temporary Character Death, Terminal Illnesses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-25 18:13:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12538152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icanhearyouglaring/pseuds/icanhearyouglaring
Summary: Wally is 13 when he gives himself powers; he’s 17 when they start to kill him.





	1. Chapter 1

Wally is 13 when he gives himself powers; he’s 17 when they start to kill him.

The first time he feels like something is wrong he brushes it off. It was just a bad hit, he rationalizes, breathing hard behind a collapsed wall as the others keep fighting. A direct punch from Gorilla Grodd was nothing to sneeze at. Take a second, find a rhythm, and get back in there.

When the fighting is over, Wally high-fives all of his teammates (and none of them notice the way his hands shake the whole ride back to the Cave). 

* * *

 

“What do you think?” Artemis asks, half-heartedly rolling a medicine ball towards Wally.

It’s a little late to be lingering in the Cave’s training room on a school night, but their shared stress doesn’t seem to care what time it is. They sit a good five feet apart from each other, winding down from their short-lived workout (Wally cuts it short, and when Artemis doesn’t question it, his aching limbs feel a little lighter).

Wally rolls the ball back to her and answers, “I think it doesn’t matter. They’re all great schools.”

Artemis snorts. “I know you have a top choice, Wally. I don’t know why you won’t just tell me what it is.”

“You haven’t told me yours either,” he counters, patting the ball.

They’ve avoided this for a long time now. At first, they didn’t want to influence each other’s choices, but things are different now, with application deadlines on the horizon. Now that they’re past the point of contemplation, it’s time to see how many Zeta trips they might be making next year.

Artemis scoots closer, pulls her legs to her chest, and rests her chin on her knees before she says, “Alright, fine. On three, you say yours and I’ll say mine.”

“One,” Wally says, placing the ball to the side as he meets her in the middle of the mat.

“Two,” Artemis counts, taking Wally’s hands in hers.

“Stanford,” they say together, and it only takes another second for their matching smiles to meet.

Wally hangs onto this moment and takes it as a sign that everything is going to be just fine.

* * *

 

“Getting a little slow out there, ay, old man?” Robin teases, playfully nudging Wally as he passes him in the Cave hall.

Wally sighs. Jason had gotten him good during training, and though the blow to his ego was worse than the actual hit, Wally can’t help but feel like Robin is right. He is slower. He has to be. If he goes any faster it hurts.

“It was a lucky shot,” Wally calls out, stopping to rub at his bruised shoulder. “Next time, you won’t see me coming.”

As he watches the Wally resolves to be more careful. Jason noticing was one thing, but the others might ask questions and he doesn’t want to worry them.

It’s just a slump. It happens. It’ll pass.

* * *

 

“You sure you’re alright?” Barry asks, handing him a water bottle as they take a breather at a bench next to the Hall of Justice’s underground track.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Wally answers, taking the bottle and tossing it between his hands. “I’m just tired. I was up all night staring at my applications and having an existential crisis.”

Barry laughs and takes a seat next to Wally. “You’ve got nothing to worry about, Kid. Those schools are going to be fighting tooth and nail over you.”

Wally sighs. “I hope you’re right.”

“I know I’m right. They’d be crazy not to accept you.” Barry ruffles Wally’s hair. “A recommendation letter from Batman wouldn’t hurt, either.”

Wally laughs and pushes his uncle’s hand away. “Quit it. I’m not asking him.”

“Why not? Knowing Bats, he has a stack of them at the ready. All you have to do is ask.” Barry zips around to sit on his other side and ruffles Wally’s hair again. “If you don’t ask, I’m asking for you.”

“Stop,” Wally groans. “I’ll ask him, I’ll ask him.”

“Great,” Barry chirps, patting Wally on the back. “You’ve got a bright future ahead of you, Kid. I’m so proud of you.”

Wally smiles brightly, partly because he’s happy and partly to hide how much that one touch hurt.

* * *

 

The mission is simple enough and the team gets through it without blowing anything up (so all in all they call it successful). They’re on course to get back to the Cave far ahead of schedule and debate catching a midnight movie at the Happy Harbor Drive-In.

Garfield, full of energy, entertains the small group by showing off his latest favorites (at least the favorites that fit in the Bio-Ship). He hops off of M’gann’s shoulder as a frog and lands at Artemis’s feet as a cat. He runs between her legs in figure eights, making her laugh and reach behind her to Wally to keep from tripping.

Wally takes her hand and that is the exact moment his body betrays him.

His smile disappears as he lets go of Artemis’s hand and pulls back his cowl. It doesn’t help him breathe any better. It all happens so fast. He doesn’t know when he falls to the floor. His vision swims and he can barely make out her face, but Artemis is suddenly above him, her hands cradling his face, and God, this can’t be happening.

There’s still so much he wants to do, to say, to experience. How could this be it? Artemis is yelling at him but he can’t hear a word she says. He wants to say he’s sorry, sorry for lying, for leaving, for ruining their plans. He wants to tell her to go to school, to do her best, to be happy. He wants to tell her she’s his best friend and that he should have said that more. He wants to say he loves her one more time.

He never gets the chance.


	2. Chapter 2

The doctors, a gaggle of meta-experts from Star Labs, explain that his heart stopped, that his powers had been overtaxing his body for a while now, that it was a miracle he’d held on for so long, that it was an even bigger miracle they’d been able to bring him back, and that he needed to slow down,  _ indefinitely,  _ or his heart would stop again and next time he would not be so lucky. 

Artemis doesn’t rush in when the doctors finally allow people outside of Wally’s immediate family in the room. She’s still trying to process what happened. That’s what everyone keeps asking her.  _ What happened? _

She has no idea. 

He’d been  _ fine. _ She racks her brain, trying to pinpoint an ‘ _ Aha!’ _ moment, some incident she can reference and say,  _ of course, how could I have missed it _ , but nothing comes to mind. He was fine, he was  _ fine _ – until he up and died.

Artemis closes her eyes tightly and  _ what happened _ brands itself into her memory. 

She’d been losing her balance, and when she looked at Wally for help, he took her hand and– and then he pulled his cowl off, and then his face lost its color, and then he was on the ground, and he was  _ dying _ . She remembers shouting, lots of it, from herself and the others. Kaldur was there, too, pushing her out of the way so he could start CPR. His hands were coated in a thin layer of water, and every so often M’gann would force her away from holding Wally’s head so Kaldur could shock him, and  _ God _ , what the hell had happened? 

She doesn’t know how they got to the medbay of Star Labs. She doesn’t even remember getting off the Bio-Ship. She doesn’t know what she said when Barry arrived and sat her down in a waiting room with M’gann and Garfield and Kaldur. She doesn’t know how long they’ve been there.

Artemis opens her eyes to find Dick, in full Nightwing-mode, crouched in front of her.

“He’s asking for you.” 

A shaky breath escapes her lips in place of a real answer, but Artemis stands anyways and uses a piece of worn-out tissue to wipe away her tears. Dick takes her arm and leads her out of the waiting room into the hall. Every step happens in slow motion and it feels like an eternity before they reach the open doorway. Artemis takes a deep breath and the sea of people take that as a sign to filter out and give her some space. Dick nudges her back and the instant she enters the room, it seems to go silent. 

The three steps it takes for Artemis to reach the bed feel like a test she never thought to study for. She spends the short walk taking in the machines and the sterile air and the way the florescent lights make him look so ghost-like. Someone pulls a chair away from the wall and sets it near the bed next to Rudy and Artemis finds herself nearly falling into it. She hadn’t realized how much Dick had been supporting her. 

When she looks at Wally, she doesn’t know what to say. His face is so pale, his eyes tired slits, and yet he still has the strength to smile and quietly joke,

“Took you long enough.”

Artemis’s face pinches as she takes the hand Wally offers (the one Rudy has just relinquished). She moves her thumb over Wally’s wrist and even though her fingers tremble she can feel the rapid thrum of his pulse, the one that wasn’t there the last time she checked. 

“Don’t do that again,” is all Artemis can manage as she tightens her grip on his hand and holds back a sob.  _ You can’t do that again. _

Wally squeezes Artemis’s hand back, as much as he can, and it’s a promise. 

He’s done. He has to be. 

**Author's Note:**

> brought the boy back, next ch -> coping w/ change


End file.
